


The Immortal's Box

by SonictheHedgehog



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: AU, All up to you!, Could Be Canon, Immortality, Inspired by Doctor Who, M/M, More tags to be added later this is a work in progress, Starshipping, Up for interpretation, could be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 11:05:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9488345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SonictheHedgehog/pseuds/SonictheHedgehog
Summary: After Jaden Yuki's third year at Duel Academy, everything has changed for him. From his mental state to his physical one. He's left to continue to think, and wonder, as the person who was cruel enough to give him the fate he now had gave him a gift - a special, tiny little box that he would hold in his pocket for years to come, as everything around him was set to change.For Jaden Yuki now had to live forever, as he was now immortal. ( Up to interpretation fic - could be canon, or AU. )





	1. domino

Never would he know of a gift far more cruel than the tiny box in his hand, that was an insult like none other to an immortal like himself.

 

He would never wish the fate he was bestowed upon anyone else. And yet… the person who cursed him to wander the earth forever more… left him with one small trinket that was nothing more than a punishment upon the already cruel punishment of never being able to die.

 

He wanted to make a vow — a promise to himself to spit in the face of the person who took everything that made life so unique and special and something you could never get to do again, that he would never use the tiny little box… but he knew. He knew far too well that the entire reason he was given the box in the first place… was because he may end up someday using it after all.

 

And so, with the idea of forever encased in his head, Jaden Yuki wandered the earth. To experience it and help others like himself avoid his horrible fate, but also… in search of the one.

 

“The one that someday you’ll find that you can’t bear to lose them,” his prosecutor that made him forever 18, forever a kid, forever _alive_ told him as he was handed the square that rested easily in his palm.

 

From then on, Jaden held on his person a tiny little box that had the power to share his life with someone. His pain with someone. His fate with someone.

 

He held a box that would allow him to make whomever he chose… immortal. Just like him.

 

He could admit — the person responsible for giving the Grim Reaper an I.O.U for him had a heart that was only in the right place.

 

“Immortality isn’t living forever; that’s not what it feels like,” were words that Jaden grew to relate to, “immorality is everybody else dying.”

 

And so, the prosecutor made what was dubbed the “second dose.” It wasn’t for him, but for “whoever he wanted.” It was to avoid watching that precious person waste away as Jaden had to continue on.

 

“That happens, I believe,” the one who gave him such a morally troubling dose of medicine said with a tone that said it was through experience rather than simple thinking or blind guessing.

 

It was because of that obvious experience, Jaden was sure, that he held onto the thing. It only convinced him that the one who had trapped him had a point. Someday he may indeed meet the one person he didn’t want to lose, ever… and in his own deep, deeply embedded and hardly faced nagging fear of what the future held… he kept the box in his pocket. Just in case.

 

Things were rough, the first few years of being immortal.

 

It was awkward — going back to school as if he was an average 18 year old and having to fake it like he was. Further awkwardness came from the fact that it wasn’t like his change into a different being was something that was kept in secret, and nobody knew.

 

No, his change was _very much_ public. They just had no idea what he had become.

 

His happy demeanor was now a total act — an act that was dripping with the depression that came from knowing the friends that saw right through you were someday going to waste away in front of his eyes. They all asked what was wrong, but he told them all that things were alright. He never once told them the truth.

 

Because as much as he loved his friends, he didn’t wish his everlasting lifespan on them, what with their hopes and dreams and desires… but it was more than that.

 

He knew that none of them would have wanted a fate like his.

 

Alexis? She wanted to teach. While it would’ve been amazing for her to teach the history that was ahead after experiencing and living through it herself, she wanted to **leave** something. Leave a legacy behind in her students.

 

How could she leave a legacy behind if she was still alive?

 

Syrus and Jaden were close, that was for sure, but after the events that took away Jaden’s human life expectancy, they never really got back that closeness they had before. And in truth, Jaden knew it was for the better. Syrus was dependent and clingy. It would be best if he was to be left with the freedom he now had to be what he wanted, not to be chained to the immortal. Why entrap him in a world of shadows, when he had fought to finally shine bright?

 

Hasselberry was a great friend, but he had his full dinosaur-obsessed life ahead of him. And as much as it would’ve been fun to watch Chazz squirm as they were the only two people left to live forever, but… he knew it would be wrong to make Chazz go through something so permanent, for only something that lasted only a short while. He didn’t want to wish it on any of his friends from when he was a student…

 

Except Jesse. Jesse made him think about it, in all honesty. Of giving him the tiny box that would fade into his skin and fix everything wrong with his body and keep him healthy for as long as Jaden would be, but as much as he liked the idea of Jesse being his companion in his long life, as much as he knew Jesse would be absolutely selfless and agree to share his fate… it was that very reason that lead him to decide against it.

 

Of course Jesse would give up being human for him, because they had learned along Jaden’s troubling life now that he didn’t have the ability to die, that while their bond was strong and true, something about it… leaned on the unhealthy side. What, they could never figure out… but Jaden was the shadow resting in his heart, and he didn’t dare want to have Jesse’s side be overtaken by the dark.

 

No. That was Jaden’s fate. Not Jesse’s.

 

As strong as he was in his conviction that spending an eternity with his best friend by his side was something that would ultimately hurt Jesse, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t hurt by the fact that he knew that Jesse couldn’t be the one to be by his side in forever. When it had been made clear that within Jesse’s heart lied the troubling attachment, Jaden had already humored the idea, and decided on it. Finding it out not only wrote out the possibility in an instant, but broke his heart. It served as a great reminder about how his fate should be best left as his alone. And for some time, as his friends aged and grew to be twice his age, he allowed his own heart to be cloaked in the shadow of lonely despair and locked away behind self-inflicted and accepted bitterness, and made sure to never show it. As long as he had anything to say about it, he and his little box would stay his little secret. As long as he was able to even think about making someone suffer in the way he did, he would never ever go through with it. He wouldn’t wish it upon anyone else…

 

He wasn’t allowed to hold true to that vow for very long.

 

They were approaching the next decade after their schooling, soon to be triple the age — or, _should_ be triple, in Jaden’s case — they all were during their tuition. His friends were passed their prime, and realizing it, while Jaden was trapped in his own. While youth was behind them, his friends remained true — even as Jaden never once looked a day older than the day the sands of time stopped moving for him. Despite the depression and bitterness in his heart that his friends were more than aware of, yet accepted they had no way of consoling him… life was good.

 

Then suddenly, one night, it wasn’t. A great calamity shook the ground and brought dark clouds into the sky. Man-made, yet natural disaster-esque at heart, Jaden was left to be the only one of his friends agile enough to climb a flight of stairs and look out from the top floor of Alexis’ apartment building at the instant that it was made clear that something was wrong — being the only one to witness swirling, purple skies as discolored lightning cracked and struck the earth as thunder bellowed from the clouds as they spun. With teeth bared and near-amber eyes with a gold shine hidden within were glued to the events, he was only given a moment to question just _what_ had caused this event… when the Earth cracked, and his balance was thrown off, for a mere moment, and eyes left the disastrous sights of what lied beyond the apartment complex for just a second, and the sound of rushing water reached his ears.

 

… That couldn’t be right, he thought — but it was, in it’s own right. In the sense that the fissures that tore the city to pieces made way for the ocean to ripple and crash their way through the holes that were made, and as the ocean came in… they went _out_.

 

The city had been practically split in half. What Jaden knew of his hometown was torn away — separated and cast farther out into the ocean as every moment of the cataclysm continued it’s damage.

 

Most of all, there was the screams. God, so many screams… of those unfortunate to be outside as the event took place — falling into the cracks, being flattened under debris, drowning in the deluge… Jaden would never be able to forget those screams for as long as he lived.

 

… Which would be forever, unless he would have lost his life to something as tragic as this. Luck, so far, decided that it wouldn’t be the case at all.

 

How wonderful.


	2. satellite

Alexis had lost her life to the tragedy, along with countless others. The government, of the city that they had left behind, claimed that the damages were far too great. That repairs would take years — maybe even a full fifty years to complete, as behind the reporters, the city was brand new, when Jaden had seen the damages himself. Both the city, and the island that fell away from it, were damaged equally as horribly as it’s counterpart. And yet… what stayed ashore had been repaired almost instantly, yet they were left in the wreckage. For a year…. or five… or an _entire decade_ without assistance.

 

Bullshit. All of it was utter bullshit. Yet who was he to contest to it, when he had been reported dead in the wreckage; and he had avoided any public appearance beyond his friends, to avoid being noticed as still 18 on the outside? No one but him and his friends, which all but one or two survived the event that split the city away. (Not that he could contact them now.) No one but them would understand… that while Jaden looked 18, he felt as old as time itself. Old, weary, and _tired._ Oh, so, _very_ tired…

 

Yet, as time kept moving… things kept changing. And change, they very much would.

 

18 years, since the incident that tore the city in two. As Jaden maintained a very careful watch over the rubble that he now called a home, he had noticed a change in atmosphere. From desolate, and almost hopeless, to clinging to a hope, and fighting to keep it alive. Where that hope began, Jaden had no idea, but as he treated it as if it had grown overnight, he realized… no. It was never so instantaneous. The hope grew and grew, he had just never seen it as something so poignant until it was this… strong.

 

So strong, it could move the heart of an immortal who had clung to bitterness and being alone for a good forty or fifty so years. (Just who was keeping track? God knows Jaden wasn’t. He had, but he honestly had lost count a good several years ago.)

 

That was… _impressive_ , to say the least.

 

Following the coat tails of this hope was all Jaden allowed himself to do, however, sure of himself that it was the populace feeling like they could either win over the city council, or that they could make their home a better place themselves. It wasn’t until Jaden, during a walk in the moonlight all by his lonesome, (the only time that the streets were empty and void of people) ran into a… person… trying to get into a rather well-known mechanics shop. Unbeknownst to them, under Jaden’s watchful and not-yet-involved eye, they managed to get in after some skillful lock-picking. Sure, their tool broke after the fact, but they still got in, much to Jaden’s shock. With it evident that this kid was trying to steal something, when the police that were brought to the forgotten city district — for _whatever_ stupid, backwards reason — would very much take them away, regardless of their age or reasoning.

 

Tch. Well. This kind of stuff was what he did before the calamity, after all.

 

He didn’t hesitate. He rushed forward as the child ran into the store, grabbing one of their hands to try and stop them. And stop them he did.

 

“Hey—!” They shouted against his pull.

 

_“Shh!”_ Jaden released forcefully behind clenched teeth. It was the midnight hour, and any loud enough noise would bring out the authorities that Jaden was trying to avoid — for _both_ of their fates now, as the situation probably made Jaden look guilty by association. _“What do you think you’re doing?!”_ He spoke sternly in hushed whispers.

 

“It’s none of your business what _I’m_ doing,” spoke the child, lower in volume than his screech in protest from before — but his inside voice wouldn’t get them anywhere in the long run. “Now let me GO!”

 

“Oh,” Jaden chuckled in his whisper as the kid struggled against his grip, “it’s _definitely_ my business when I may be your only way outta here if you don’t keep quiet. Now what’re you doing..?!”

 

**_“Liar!!”_** They bit back louder as they tried to squirm away. Not good, _not good._ “You’re just gonna take me back to security!! Y—you’re an undercover cop, ain’t ya?!”

 

“I’m _NOT,_ kid!!” Jaden finally barked back, inside voice but still rather loud in comparison to his whispers. “I’m a friend! A friend who understands struggling for every bite to eat and every single drop of water!!”

 

He wanted to outright say that he was a person who had witnessed the cataclysm, but that would’ve given himself away far more than he wanted to in this day in age. Still, from what he had said already, the kid stopped squirming as much… he was striking some nerves… good.

 

“I—… I was born here! Just like you were, right?”

 

With that, the kid stopped fighting back; instead, they loosened up and looked Jaden in the eyes — for once, his drowned in darkness heart won him some favors, because his eyes matched his white lie.

 

“So I just wanna know what’s up so I can help you get all I can… understand?”

 

With a soft voice and a feigned softening of his expression, he had unlocked his way to the child’s heart, and with their eyes turned to the ground… they tugged to be freed, and Jaden let them go.

 

He didn’t use the chance to run away.

 

“… Okay…” They finally spoke, before lifting their head full of curly, red hair upwards to look into his eyes again. With fists balled up, they shared their story.

 

“I-I’m trying to steal some parts for my friend — he’s building his own motorcycle to take advantage of a new maintenance pipe that was built between here and the shoreside city. He’s gonna get outta here and fight the big wigs to get more help over here!!”

 

Jaden nodded, taking in the story… even though he wasn’t sold entirely on the idea of getting out of the damaged district. No one had done it yet… anyone who supposedly did was an urban legend. Granted, those myths had weight to them, as Jaden had lived to see… but. He hadn’t heard of them making it. Still, to make sure that this kid was safe, he’d buy it. He wasn’t going to stop helping even when he knew the kid was going to be disappointed later, that wasn’t who he was! Even now, as he was probably one of the few people of his generation left.

 

“Alright… I’ll help you get whatever you can’t carry, and watch your back but—!”

 

“You don’t believe me!”

 

_“Shhh!”_ He hissed at the kid again, nicer than the last time. _“_ Watch the volume—… uh…”

 

“Rally.”

 

“Rally,” Jaden repeated. Interesting name, but that just seemed to be the case in this district in general. “What makes you think I don’t—.”

 

“Your eyes.” Rally spoke firmly, cutting Jaden off. Well.. that was an interesting response, that threw the immortal for a loop. No one had really read into his eyes since Alexis, Cyrus, and Jesse were around… though, granted, no one since them had the chance to.

 

“…My… eyes?” Jaden repeated again, still not sure what to think as his guard had yet to build itself back up. Rally hummed as they nodded.

 

“Yeah! If you believed me your eyes would be shining with hope!” They spoke, still with absolute conviction. For someone who was probably only 14 years old… they sure believed in some powerful things.

 

Who taught them this, Jaden had to wonder…

 

“And trust me,” Rally continued, “they should be! My friend’ll _definitely_ be able to get shoreside! _Definitely!!_ ”

 

This time, it was Jaden’s turn to read into Rally’s eyes… and what he saw in them? He couldn’t at all argue against.

 

How could he… when Rally’s eyes shimmered with so much hope? So much so… it was nearly contagious.

 

After a sigh and a shake of his head, Jaden had to chuckle before smiling down at the kid standing before him oh, so confidently.

 

“Alright… ya got me.” He said defeatedly, but not at all lacking energy. “I believe you.”

 

Before Rally was allowed to rejoice about the new member to their and their friend’s cause, Jaden stopped them in their tracks for perhaps the best reason he could’ve, situationally.

 

“Now, c’mon, hurry! Let’s get the parts before the cops show up!!”

 

Following Jaden’s hand motions, as if he was directing traffic, Rally finally went into the parts shop and gathered what they needed. Before Jaden did his part and went in to help, he looked to the stars — twinkling, even in the darkest of nights… The only plus side to calling desolate, debris-ridden city ruins home… was that you got a pretty sweet view. For the first time in… how long? Jaden had absolutely no idea —

 

He looked to the stars with his own little glimmer of hope. Whoever Rally’s friend was… maybe they deserved believing in. Even from Jaden himself.

 

Rally revealed that _he_ had only come in for one thing only, but the two of them decided that a few more specific parts wouldn’t help. Only at the end of their heist did the security guards of the district show up, and as their lights brightened up the front, Rally lead Jaden into escaping through the back of the shop — thankful that shipments of parts were a thing, Jaden was lead by Rally from there to where his friends were hiding out. While the location seemed… iffy to Jaden at first, through misconceptions about the locale… as he found himself with stolen parts in arms, he found himself saying…

 

“Okay. Whoever’s idea it was to make a hideout out of an abandoned subway station, they’re _awesome._ ”

 

Rally laughed, just as he had been throughout his adventure with Jaden beyond their scuffle earlier, before he blinked and smiled even brighter with what —or who — lied ahead.

 

“Ah—! Guys! I’m back!” He shouted at the crowd of three people, before running forwards. Jaden kept a watchful eye on him, the group of three dispersing out of the corner of his eye. As he approached at his own pace, Rally kept running — even as it meant tripping over a wad of wires taped together across the floor.

 

“Ah—!”

 

“Rally!!” Jaden yelled, trying to bolt down the stairs, but dropping a part in the process — it looked like he had no need to rush, as well… as a _fourth_ member of Rally’s posse — with outstretched arms kept in a blue jacket — kneeled down and caught him just before he fell. A sigh of relief left Jaden’s lips, just before his eyes stayed trained on this hero of the hour.

 

He had black hair that mirrored the night — perhaps more like a nightly thunderstorm, as it was streaked with yellow across the spikes that stuck out quite well. The bottom of his hair spoke that he hadn’t seen a haircut in a while, while his bangs covered his forehead before nearly hiding his ears. Blue eyes, as bright as clear ocean waters on a clear summer day shined as if no tragedy had ever befallen him — and despite the blue jacket, a black shirt with red circuitry covered his torso beneath it. His choice of pants and shoes? Rather modest, considering the rest of him. Jeans with a brown belt, and brown boots. All over his outfit in certain places, were some orange orb things… but after thinking about it…What kind of motorcyclist went without protective gear? They probably looked weird because they were custom made.

 

Jaden would muse more about this curious stranger, but as he studied the boy who looked as old as Jaden had, Rally had explained the situation, and pointed Jaden out — the entire posse was looking at him, and of course because of that… so was the stranger. But the stranger did something different to the rest of them… instead of studying Jaden’s person…

 

He looked Jaden directly in the eyes. As they stared into the gates of each other’s souls, Jaden realized rather quick that his initial thoughts… were rather off.

 

His eyes were still an ever so bright blue — but it wasn’t because he was lucky and no tragedy had ever befallen him.

 

There was an air of tiredness to them, that spoke the exact opposite. There was a silent rage of some kind — a rage that spoke of change, rather than violence. There was compassion. There was knowledge. Most of all, there was a drive to fight, and hope for a future to where the tragedies he had seen and experienced were the shine in his eye that left Jaden speechless. That hope shimmered in his eyes like the most gorgeous pieces of broken stars he had ever seen —

 

— like _stardust._

 

“You helped Rally?” He asked, rather bluntly, breaking Jaden out of his thoughts so suddenly it left him disoriented. It took him a moment to actually respond as a result. With a shrug of his shoulders, he finally made his way down the subway stairs.

 

“Yeah, it started that way, but _he_ ended up helping _me._ ” He said with a laugh at the end, as he reached the end of the stairs. From there, the stranger was the one to walk forward, his boots thudding against the ruined tile of the subway with every step.

 

“Thank you,” he spoke in a kind tone, a smile on his face.

 

“Eh, it’s no big deal. I’m sure he could’ve found his way out without me.”

 

“But without you,” Rally interrupted, poking his head out from the older — and taller — rest of the crew, “we wouldn’t have brought back so many extra parts!”

 

“… True…” The immortal admitted playfully, with a chuckle leaving him.

 

“Your involvement still changed things for the better for us,” spoke the blue-eyed stranger. “We’re very grateful.”

 

“N’aw,” Jaden said, raising his shoulders as he looked away, “you’re gonna make me blush! It’s still not that big of a deal. I help everyone!”

 

After his phrase, a silence fell between them, and Jaden found it… rather interesting how the stranger just… let the conversation fall away. The ice that formed from the lack of a flowing connection between them was broken again by the secret immortal in the stranger’s midst.

 

“Are you good to build your motorcycle with these?”

 

The stranger blinked, but with a “I told him, don’t worry! He can be trusted!” from Rally, Jaden was in the clear on the matter and the stranger’s small but all the same just as strong smile returned on his face.

 

“Yes. You’ve changed a lot for us — more than you realize.”

 

From there, the conversation halted as the black-haired teenager took the parts from the eternal teen, and halfway through the parts exchange, the stranger spoke once again.

 

“You are?”

 

“Huh—?” Jaden tilted his head as it took him a moment to register just exactly what the man in front of him was asking — Oh! He was asking for his name, wasn’t he? “I’m Jaden! Jaden Yuki!” Yeah, these people could be trusted with his last name, he was sure. It’s not like they could look it up in this wreck anyways.

 

“You?”

 

“Yusei Fudo,” the stranger-no-longer revealed, before taking advantage of both of them having a hand free to offer one of his gloved hands for a handshake. Near amber eyes looked down at the hand, hesitant of taking it for the sake of this being yet another group of friends he had to watch die… but in the moment of the happy atmosphere, and being welcomed into a new set of friends…

 

Jaden took the mechanic’s hand in his own, and firmly shook it.

 

“Yusei, huh? Nice name!”

 

All the stranger did was chuckle as they parted ways, and continued the parts exchange. Once Yusei had them all in his hands, he walked off to go take the parts to… his bike, Jaden assumed, as he remembered the small part he had dropped in his rush to recover Rally from his fall earlier and picked it up. Just before walking after Yusei to give the motorcycle part — he had no idea what it was, cut him some slack — to him.

 

“Oh,” Jaden began as he cut through the crowd of the three allies the rag-tag group of Yusei and Rally called friends to reach the black-haired male who already sat back down, “I dropped this earlier and I—.”

 

The sight that was very hard to ignore that was next to Yusei as he sat and worked caught the brunet off guard. Next to Yusei… was his bike. That much was obvious. A motorcycle coated in paint of red and white — parts that didn’t mesh with the rest painted the same colors as the body of the vehicle, so it all flowed together. For something stuck in the depths of an abandoned and torn apart subway station, trapped in the district coated in debris… it looked brand new. And Jaden knew — he knew this district more than anyone, under the case that it was his hometown before it became the mess that it was. Even then, he had lived there for the 18 years since it had deteriorated into this junk pile of half of a city. He knew.. that this bike was probably made from bits and pieces of the scrap that surrounded them.

 

Holy _shit_.

 

_“Whoa,”_ was what Jaden chose to let fall from his lips, rather than the swear he kept to himself, as he stopped in his tracks to stare at Yusei’s homemade ride. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yusei turn around and adjust his position to face him, seeing the part he held out in his frozen, in awe state, and only Yusei’s actions told him that he had taken it.

 

“Oh,” Yusei said at the sight of the part, before taking it out of Jaden’s hand himself, “Thanks.”

 

He turned around yet again and got back to work as Jaden was pulled out of his impressed trance, slowly but surely, from there.

 

“A-ah… n-no problem.” Jaden sputtered out as he moved his hand, and then a second later, adjusted his posture as the only thing heard was Yusei tinkering away with installing more inward parts to the bike. Would talking more distract him? Would he mind? Jaden had no idea, and even with how long he had been alive, he still hadn’t learned when it was best to keep his mouth shut.

 

“So,” he said, as his gaze moved from Yusei, to the bike. Back to Yusei, then the bike again as he kept talking. “This is it, huh?”

 

“Yeah,” Yusei replied, caught up in his work. Fortunately, from there, Yusei was left to keep at it, and Jaden didn’t at all go without a conversation partner of some kind. Yusei’s friends, who Jaden would learn the names of later, spoke for him.

 

“It’s called the Yusei Go!” Spoke one behind the immortal, startling him into looking behind him. He’d notice how quirky that name was later, as it slipped his mind for right now. Because…

 

“He built it out of scrap pieces around here and over in the junkyard across the old shoreline!” Said the second, just before he adjusted his glasses. “Pretty impressive, right?”

 

“Yeah, it’s pretty impressive alright—,” Jaden spoke quickly in fear of being cut off, and that fear was justified.

 

“Jaden,” Rally excitedly called from his left, looking up at him with eyes filled with hope, as ever. “Jaden!! So, are you gonna stay with us?! And keep helping us with Yusei’s bike?!”

 

“I—…” Jaden found himself stopping in his tracks, as he did his best to think on where to go from here. Once he was given the time to think on joining up with another group of friends did he realize — he had introduced himself and made a mark in their lives as such before he even tried stopping himself. A cold state took over him at the realization. At the realization that he really _had_ made friends with another group that was just… destined to fade away. Their times would come for all of them, and Jaden had nothing he could do to stop it — well. There was his trinket, the box that even to this day that he kept in his pocket… but.. no. He wouldn’t dare. He would _never_.

 

He also couldn’t stay absorbed in his thoughts like usual. His struggles were always internal; kept to himself as he stood there and thought and kept thinking, unmoving to the world, but he couldn’t stay that way. Not this time, with the eyes of Yusei’s four friends staring at him, ever eager to hear what his answer would be.

 

The pressure was on him to go ahead and say what he was going to do, as his heart lifted from it’s despair at the idea of the hope he was promised. Of the future this group of friends fought for. How the people that were now staring at him, all worked together to help one person — and only one person, fight for better things. Yusei could take the glory if he wanted it. (He probably didn’t.) They just wanted to help.

 

He was reminded of his friends, and how they all did the same for him when he was younger… in spirit, at least.

 

Sentimentality was always his greatest weakness. With that flicker of friendship lighting up his dull, gray heart — back to the passionate red it used to be, a smile came on his face as he shrugged, and his thoughts were put to bed with a simple phrase.

 

“Yeah, alright. I guess I could stick around and help out!”

 

The subway echoed with their cheers and happiness to have a sixth member of their crew — hugs and friendly embraces and handshakes to go around as Rally tugged on the back of his jacket, and he was left to laugh lightly as the weight of what commitment he just made struck him. He had just made friends with yet another group that was destined to die. The weight of that truth was quick to grab onto his — for once — happy heart and threaten to drag it back down into the muck of the finality of death that he faced every time a friend like Cyrus, or Chazz, or Jesse passed away and left him behind.

 

But before his heart went back to being cold and callous, before his newfound friends tugged him away, he found himself looking back at Yusei… just at the right time to see him lightly turn his head around and smile. The smile obviously aimed at the happy situation that was his friends welcoming another into their flock. The smile that was aimed at him deciding to stay that lasted a mere moment, before he went back to work.

 

_Yusei Fudo_ , huh? That name was something that already struck Jaden deep within the core of his being. Yusei Fudo — the man who’s eyes spoke of pain, sorrow, tragedy and guilt… that he turned around with determination and made into _hope_ the likes of Jaden had _never_ seen. Yusei Fudo — the man who was destined for great things. Jaden already knew that for a fact. For from this meeting… the atmosphere, his eyes, his friends… he had already believed in everything they were fighting for.

 

Yusei Fudo — the man who had finally given the eternally destined to wander _hope_ again. And he was sure he would do all in his power to make sure that hope didn’t go to waste.

 

He would fight with them. All of them. 

 

And.. forget his pessimistic attitude. He’d be sure to give them all the optimism he had to give. He would fight with his new friends with all he had.

 

He was determined to stick to that.


End file.
